Prime sustainability

Photo courtesy of afotostock/Shutterstock

The combined market cap of the top five Prime contractors in the US is close to US$500 billion which provides some idea of just how big their environmental footprint is. All five companies—Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics—currently have environmental stewardship and social responsibility woven into their business practices. What’s more, they provide the world with a detailed overview of their accomplishments and long-term goals on a yearly basis in the form of an annual Sustainability or Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) report. We share some of the highlights from the 2021 reports and invite you to take a close look at them on our website.

Crispin Littlehales, Global Contributing Editor, Satellite Evolution Group

ESG and Sustainability Reports are not new, but they have become increasingly relevant. Generally, these reports provide an in-depth look at what companies are doing to protect the environment, improve the lives of employees, and maintain secure business practices. While the EU has ESG regulations in place to further the EU’s promise to combat climate change and environmental degradation, compliance in the US is largely voluntary. However, President Biden issued an executive order in February 2021 requiring the federal government to “drive assessment, disclosure, and mitigation of climate pollution and climate-related risks in every sector of our economy.” Then, in December 2021, the President announced the Federal Sustainability Plan which outlined a path to achieve net-zero emissions from federal procurement and across federal operations by 2050. The top five Primes are already on board.

Lockheed Martin: best-in-class sustainability practices

Lockheed Martin’s Core Values—Do What’s Right, Respect Others and Perform with Excellence—are reflected in its approach to operating as a sustainable enterprise. The company earned a spot on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index based on best-in-class sustainability practices for the 8th consecutive year and the North American Index for the 9th year in a row.

Lockheed Martin F-35 factory.

Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin

In 2021, the corporation implemented a 2025 Sustainability Management Plan (2025 SMP), its five-year sustainability roadmap which includes the advancement of resource stewardship directed towards minimizing the environmental footprint of its operation. Priorities include responsible waste disposal and recycling; water management; remediation and wildlife protection; energy management; and reduction of the use of hazardous chemicals and materials. In addition, Lockheed committed US$2 million to a three-year partnership with the Nature Conservancy in support of a project to protect 4,000 acres of land along Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Many impressive accomplishments were achieved in 2021:

• A non-chromated inhibiting material substitution effort enabled the Marietta, GA facility to reduce hazardous waste by more than 13,000 pounds per year

• A cooling-tower filtration system installed at the Missiles and Fire Control facility in Troy, AL avoided the use of 6,307,200 gallons of water per year

• 64 energy efficiency projects were completed resulting in annual savings of 40.0 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and 17,200 MMBTU of natural gas

• Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions were reduced per dollar of gross profit by 47 percent

• 50 percent of total waste was recycled

Read full report at: https://satelliteevo.com/011318

Raytheon: innovating sustainable technologies

Raytheon is committed to improving the environmental performance of its products and business through the innovation of sustainable technologies. To combat climate change and preserve natural resources, the company is focused on four key areas: progressing toward decarbonizing aviation to reach netzero CO2 emissions by 2050; decarbonizing operations; minimizing resource usage; and collaborating with suppliers to ensure the use of quality, responsibly sourced materials in its products.

Raytheon factory floor.

Photo courtesy Raytheon

In addition, the company is also supporting the Department of Defense’s (DoD) sustainability plans. For example, Pratt & Whitney has conducted extensive testing of military engines with both blended and 100 percent SAF, which has enabled it to gain approval on the use of up to 50 percent AAF blends, as defined by NATO F-24 for all military engine products. Pratt & Whitney is also developing enhanced engine packages for the F135 engine that powers the F-35 Lightning II, providing options to save over 2.6 million gallons of fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by 43 million tons over the life of the engine with increased mission capability. Raytheon is making enhancements in product energy efficiency, such as the fielding of gallium nitride in radars.

These radars are approximately five to ten times more efficient than previous gallium arsenide radars. Collins, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense are working on electrification technologies for defense applications across different domains, including operationally proved hydrogen fuel cells for marine applications, with the potential for other domains, and microgrid technologies and energy storage to enable the use of solar and wind power. Raytheon’s 2021 progress highlights include:

• Achieved an A- climate CDP score, the best in the industry

• Reduction of 24 percent in waste sent to landfill or incineration

• 23 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the last two years

• Reduction of 19 percent in water usage over the last two years

• 17 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from 2015 for aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF™ engine

Read full report at: https://satelliteevo.com/f564b9

Boeing: helping to protect our world for future generations

Boeing is passionate about protecting the Earth and recognizes that each product the company builds and every service it supplies affects our atmosphere. In 2020, the company announced that it had achieved net-zero carbon emissions at its factories, work sites, and business travel by expanding conservation and renewable energy use while securing responsible offsets for the remaining greenhouse gas emissions.

Boeing bioenergy research project for aviation.

Photo courtesy Boeing

Boeing has also made a commitment to make certain that its commercial airplanes will be certified to safely fly on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuels by 2030. In addition, the company is working on the creation of airplanes that use batteries charged with clean and renewable resources. Boeing has joined forces with Kitty Hawk on Wisk, an urban mobility joint venture that is developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, targeted for certification later in this decade.

Launched in 2010, Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator is a flying laboratory used to test and evaluate new features and technologies that can increase efficiency, improve safety, enhance the passenger experience, and minimize environmental impact. In 2020, Boeing’s partner Etihad Airways used one of the new 787-10 Dreamliners to test various technologies that delivered less airframe noise, quieter landing gear, better cabin sanitation, more efficient travel, and increased airspace efficiency en route. Boeing purchased verified offsets to cover a portion of the ecoDemonstator emissions in addition to testing emissions-reduction technologies and using a blend of up to 50 percent SAF.

Here is a sampling of Boeing’s environmental protection achievements:

• Reduced GHG by 5,000 metric tons through efficiency projects

• Renewable energy accounted for 9 percent of the company’s total energy and 19 percent of total electricity

• Efficiency projects resulted in savings of 65,000 metric million BTUs (69 terajoules) of energy

• 16 million kilograms (36 million pounds) of scrap metal from machining and milling, excess wires, and spent tools and equipment were sent to reclamation for future use in other products

• Boeing has thousands of acres of protected habitats in five locations that are certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council, with three certified at the Gold Level

Read full report at: https://satelliteevo.com/936354

Northrop Grumman: proactively supporting a sustainable future

Kathy Warden, Chair, CEO, and President of Northrop Grumman captured the company’s dedication to environmental stewardship in the Message from CEO: “Northop Grumman stands at the forefront by providing technical and tactical solutions that help us understand, predict, and address the dynamic implications that climate change presents to ourselves, our customers, and our communities. From our Mission Extension Vehicles that make spacecraft reusable to our Tech for Conservation Initiative that pairs our engineers with conservationists in need of technological solutions to unique challenges facing ecosystems, we’re working to expand the boundaries of what it means to define possible as a global steward.”

NASA’s Artemis mission.

Photo courtesy Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman put in place its first sustainability initiatives in 2010. In April 2022, the company announced six new company environmental sustainability goals including achieving net-zero GHG emissions in operations by 2035 and the sourcing of 50 percent of total electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Not surprisingly, efforts to meet these goals and other sustainability milestones were well underway during 2021.

Here is a summary of Northrop Grumman’s most notable achievements:

GHG Performance Highlights

• Implemented 75 GHG and energy reduction projects, expected to reduce 7,110 MT of CO2e annually

• Invested in HVAC equipment upgrades, reducing 1,200 MT CO2e annually

• Completed 36 LED lighting upgrades, reducing 1,890 MT CO2e annually

Expanding Renewable Electricity Opportunities

• Began development process of a 62.5-megawatt solar facility in Orange County, VA

• Completed installation of a 1.1-megawatt on-site solar array in Rolling Meadows, IL

• Explored on-site solar opportunities with 15 other Northrop Grumman campuses

Reducing Water Consumption

• Improved water monitoring and the installation of submeters at three sites reducing 6.4 million gallons annually

• Converted a complete chiller system with 14 hydraulic units into a single pass cooling system at the Radford, VA site conserving 18 million gallons of water and saving $140,000 in operational costs annually

• Implemented 28 water conservation projects across the company, conserving over 1 million gallons annually

• Completed upgrades to an industrial wastewater process at Baltimore, MD site, estimated to conserve 5.6 million gallons of potable water annually

Waste Diversion and Reduction

• Implemented 28 solid waste projects across the company, estimated to divert 829,557 pounds from landfill annually

• Implemented composting programs at four new sites, estimated to divert 62,000 pounds from landfill annually

• Implemented an aluminum powder recovery program at a site in West Virginia, estimated to divert 25,000 pounds of waste from landfill annually

• Introduced a waste oil recycling program at the Sunnyvale, CA site that will reduce waste by 160,000 pounds annually

Read full report at: https://satelliteevo.com/28ddb1

General Dynamics: maintaining sustainable environmental practices over the long term

General Dynamics has made a commitment to a science-based company-wide goal of reducing GHG emissions by 40 percent by 2034 (off a 2019 base year) with an eye toward being carbon neutral before 2060. This will include the gradual reduction of both Scope 1 and Scope 2 gases. To meet that goal, the company has switched its corporate headquarters fleet to allelectric, zero-emission vehicles; invested in energy from renewable sources; built ISO-compliant and LEED-certified buildings; and established a global network of sustainable jet fuel sources both for its own use and that of its customers. Since 2008, GHG emissions have declined 23 percent, even as revenues have increased 29 percent, representing an average reduction of CO2 emissions per dollar of revenue of 4.4 percent per year.

Both Gulfstream and Jet Aviation are expanding the availability of SAF to their customers. The fuel is a low-carbon, 30/70 drop-in blend made from agricultural waste and petroleumbased Jet-A. It has less sulfur and fewer fine particle pollutants than traditional Jet-A and each gallon burned is meant to achieve a more than 80 percent reduction in GHG emissions over a lifecycle basis, relative to petroleum Jet-A.

Several of General Dynamics’ business units support the US government’s efforts to mitigate ecological impacts. GD Mission Systems provides agencies such as the Department of the Interior’s US Geological Survey, NASA, and NOAA with specially engineered instruments and communications for onorbit Earth observation satellites, including the Landsat constellation. Decision-makers around the world use Landsat data to understand environmental change, manage agricultural practices, allocate scarce water resources, and respond to natural disasters. GD Mission Systems also provides ground stations, communications links, and mission operation centers for NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans.

One of the company’s key objectives is to be a leader in improving environmental quality by minimizing waste and emissions, reusing and recycling, reducing the use of natural resources, and preventing pollution. Key achievements in these areas include:

• Bath Iron Works entered into a long-term agreement to procure solar energy credits representing 92 percent of the total electricity consumed at its main yard

• Ordnance and Tactical Systems developed a method to neutralize chemicals used for etching and anodizing specialized parts significantly decreasing the amount of waste generated and energy consumed, and reducing water usage by more than 10 million gallons per year

• The Electric Boat Quonset Point facility recycles 100,000 gallons of industrial wastewater by treating it so it can be used again in manufacturing processes

• For over 25 years, General Dynamics has been sampling, remediating, and monitoring various facilities, resulting in the remediation of 20,000 tons of soil

Read full report at: https://satelliteevo.com/2656b2

Both Gulfstream and Jet Aviation are expanding the availability of SAF to their customers.

Photo courtesy General Dynamics